State of the Union

Every January as a child, I was given one of the best opportunities to understand what direction the U.S. was heading thanks to my mother's insistence that our whole family must watch the State of the Union. As a child, I sat riveted to the screen for an hour listening to the Arkansas drawl of Bill Clinton and the commentaries by the sometimes inane broadcasters and their correspondents that inevitably follow any political event. In my living room in California, I listened to the President speak about his plans for foreign policy, resolving domestic issues, and how he was going to improve the economy in the upcoming year.

As a child, most of what the president talked about passed right over my head but I listened closely to the comments made on the speech by my parents and their friends. I guess you could say that this early exposure to the only time the entire chamber of the House is full sparked a love of politics and its surrounding rhetoric.

Tonight, a very different President from Bill Clinton stood in the House and gave his take on the path he believes America should take in the next year. Honestly, this was one of Bush's better speeches and whoever the speechwriter was deserves a raise. Although I quite enjoyed hearing about his domestic plan in the first 20 minutes, I was extremely offended at one comment he made about Muslims in the Middle East and anyone who has any exposure to Middle East culture or politics should be offended as well. Mr. Bush made a comment about how Islamic fundamentalists have a deep hatred for "civilization" and want to destroy it. I was shocked that anyone, much less the President of the United States could make such a racist and bigoted comment. I don't pretend to know EVERY Islamic fundamentalist personally but I am quite sure that they do not want to send the world back into prehistory through their violent attacks on Western targets. Making such a broad claim about such a diverse group of people will only serve to further alienate many people in the Middle East.

Another problem I had with this comment is the insinuation that the West, especially the United States, has the monopoly on culture or that this "civilization" is better than Islamic "civiilization." Bush's statement also seems to deny that the Middle East has ever had "civilization," mirroring the attitudes of European powers in the 18th and 19th century about the Ottoman Empire not being on the same plane as Western civilization. These European powers traced this "Western" civilization to the Ancient Greeks and Romans and maintained this was a continiuous entity (such BS). The insinutation that Islamic civilization is inferior or never existed smacks of old prejudices and attitudes held by Europeans to assert their supremacy over the Middle East.

These are just my initial comments on the State of the Union.... more to come later!!